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Alrighty, I’m back! Here’s the second half of my top 15 songs of 2015:

[Hearts] “Brutal Hearts” –Bedouin Soundclash and “Elastic Heart”- Sia

Last Spring was a Spring filled with lots of “lasts” for me: last class of undergrad, last orchestra concert, last pig roast, last spring break, and one of the most difficult for me: my last dance recital. I have been dancing since I was two and it was beyond amazing to have the opportunity to continue dancing throughout my college career, especially because I was surrounded by some of the most creative and supportive friends in the dance studio. For my last opportunity to choreograph and teach a class, I opted to teach Modern. I love being abstract and aloof as all holy hell, so this dance was definitely the most fun to experiment with. Being my indecisive self, I couldn’t choose a song so I ended
up taking a crack at mixing my own song by combining “Brutal Hearts” by Bedouin Soundclash with Sia’s newer single, “Elastic Heart.”

I couldn’t have been happier with my decision to combine these two unique songs. “Brutal Hearts” contains some of the coolest percussion parts and backgrounds with some oozey-like voices singing about the search for finding companionship without involving the big four letter “L word” (¡cuidado!). Let me just say that I had a field day choreographing specific body isolations to every weird beat and instrument in this song.

Soon enough, I blended in Sia’s “Elastic Heart” to come in and basically step up the tempo. If you didn’t already know, I am a big fan of Sia, especially because of her professional d-gafing¨(doesn’t give a fuck). So after hearing lyrics from the first song say: “If you’re looking for love, you can look for that door,” Sia’s song comes blaring in with questions like: “Oh how can I not conquer love?” By the time the chorus hits, I had the dancers charging the front of the stage doing karate-like kicks while Sia sings: “Well I got thick skin and an elastic heart.” Fun times.

It was only after the end of choreographing, teaching, and performing the dance to this song mix that I had realized what this whole piece had signified for me. There’s a lot of personal depth for me to get lost in describing this, so basically the gist of my “Hearts” dance developed and generated itself from my personal journey of love and loss throughout college, and how I eventually learned to make sense of everything and finally end up conquering it all.

PS: Last Spring I had thought to myself, “Who knows when I’ll get to perform on a stage again!?”…. Well….I guess I can’t stay away from the spotlight for too long because last Halloween I ended up getting on stage and dancing the night away at the club with my crew. #Getyourfreakon

Before I even graduated from Juniata, this past April I accepted a position working for an amazing local cultural resource management firm. After scrubbing artifacts with a toothbrush for too many weeks, I finally graduated and was not-so-“ready” to leave all of my friends at school to go start my first real dig gig. I left for my first day of work in the field the Monday after graduation, which meant I was first girl of five to leave our beloved 1410 house, our homebase and safe haven of senior year.

Ultimately more or less, tragedy had struck for me. In less than 48 hours, I had transitioned from College senior, to college graduate, to field archaeologist. Don’t get me wrong, the job was great experience and I worked with amazing people, but it was an extreme period of intense transitions in my life. For weeks on end, I was living in a more-or-less shitty motel in a room by myself. After digging for hours in the heat and then going out for dinner with the crew, I would find myself alone in my hotel room seeking my friends.

I had originally found this song and artist, Jake Hill, a few years ago thanks to an old pal, but I hadn’t listened to this song in many moons. One night in my room after too many glasses of wine, I stumbled upon this song again and as soon as it started playing, the cartoon-light bulb hovering above my head suddenly turned on. The chorus in this song goes as: “ It’s gonna be a long long night, in the motel by the side of the road” and so of course after hearing the lyrics again after so long, I was like “Ohh man, this is actually my shit.” This was my life at the time! This literally could have been/is my theme song for myself when I worked/work my various digs. Even if you’re not stuck somewhere in a crappy motel for the night, this song will make you feel extra folky and give you the essence of the genuine rawness that is the countryside and wilderness of the Northeast.

“Send My Love” (To Your New Lover)- Adele

The classiest way to say: “F.U.” Thanks again, Adele!

“Uma Thurman”- Fall Out Boy

Okay, okay. I had to put this one in here. I had grown up as a loyal FOB fan, so it was actually super exciting to finally go see them in concert this past July. Every time since then when I hear this song, I always think back to the night of the concert when I was dancing like a fool, “mud surfing” as I was calling it, on the muddy slopes of First Niagra Pavilion. “Uma Thurman” is just a down right good song to dance along too and have fun, especially during the summer months thanks to the surfer theme in the chorus. As for me like I said, anytime I hear this FOB hit, I think of the crazy time we all had at the concert and how it had turned out to be a perfect July summer night. For those of you who were there with me… you know the whole story. HAH.

“If It Hadn’t Been for Love”- The Steeldrivers

Two words: Blue. Grass.

Throughout all of my highs and lows of 2015, I spent a lot of my free time on my guitar. I always love to Google various songs with their tabs or chords and teach myself as many variations as possible. I actually ran into this song after hearing it performed by a participant known as Blind Joe on The Voice (I’m a sucker for this show). There’s something about this tune, which I can’t put my finger on, that pulled me in enough to play this song on repeat for like 3 weeks. During the month of November when I was in and out of my archaeology digs, this became my absolute favorite song to drink a few whiskeys and play/sing along to when my parents weren’t home. Chord progression-wise, it’s a super easy jam to learn which makes it that much more fun to play around with and make it your own. Oh I almost forgot; there’s a violin solo too. Fuck yeah.

“Comeback” –Ella Eyre

Ladies of 1410: you know what it issss. By the time graduation rolled around, this song had transformed itself into one of the classic “unit” anthems. Whether it was the signal for one of our typical random dance parties where we all twerked on the stairs, danced with the pink Swiffer or straddled the sliding doors (all in good fun here, people), or
maybe it was the signal of the beginning of a great night ahead at one of our Saturday night parties, Ella Eyre was always there. ❤ I can actually say that when people would come over to our house and watch all of us singing along and dancing together, people were beyond impressed, or maybe just stunned… Either way, “Comeback” was played so many times that we kind of unintentionally all developed our own specific dance moves for this song and when we put it all together, The Unit was in true action.

On top of this song holding so much significance for myself and my friends, this tune is also simply: “that good”. Ella Eyre’s vocals are insane and the lyrics about how “they always come back” couldn’t be more accurate because lets be honest ladies… they really do always come freaking back.

“We Are Young”- 3OH!3

Now I haven’t listened to a 3OH!3 tune in a handful of years, but Caitlyn showed me this song on the way home during our Spring Break Road Trip extravaganza. I remember immediately being like, “OMG WHAT IS THIS SONG I LOVE IT?!?1*$@)?”
Every single lyric in this song describes the roller coaster ride and adventure known as living as a college senior/ being a young adult. Whenever adult life has me wound way too uptight and I’m on the verge of a major freak out, I like to go for a drive and blast this song so I can remind myself that I’m only 22 (for like 5 more days- YIKES) and nothing is really the end of the world.

As one of my best girlfriends, Sarah (BC), so wisely tweeted one day my senior year:

“Everything we do is dramatic and passionate, because we’re young and it matters.”

“Going to California”– Led Zeplin

Last but certainly not least, my 15th song of 2015: “Going to California.” I have so much to say about this one-of-a-kind song that I’m going actually going to save it for one my next entries…. #Foreshadowing

For you music lovers out there in cyber abyss, here are some of the songs that didn’t make the cut, but still gave me some awesome memories in 2015: